Plan to Expand Jerusalem Settlement Angers U.S.
By ISABEL KERSHNER
NYT
JERUSALEM — Israel said Tuesday that it had advanced plans to expand a Jewish district of Jerusalem in territory that was captured in the 1967 war and that the Palestinians claim as part of their future state. The move is likely to further complicate the Obama administration’s faltering efforts to restart peace talks.
The news that the building plans had moved closer to approval drew a sharp response from the White House, which has declared reviving the talks to be a major goal. Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, issued a statement saying the administration was “dismayed” and asking both parties to avoid unilateral actions that could “pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently generated a furor among Palestinians and other Arabs by praising as “unprecedented” an offer by Israel to slow down, but not stop, construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Arab countries worried that the administration was backing off its previous insistence on a complete freeze, but Mrs. Clinton denied that, saying that she was offering “positive reinforcement” for policies that headed in that direction.
The Israeli move to push forward the building plans in Jerusalem comes as the Palestinians have begun seeking support for a plan to win the United Nations Security Council’s recognition of a Palestinian state, without Israel’s agreement, in the lands Israel won in 1967. Palestinian officials said they were pursuing the idea in an attempt to break the impasse in peace talks.
(More here.)
NYT
JERUSALEM — Israel said Tuesday that it had advanced plans to expand a Jewish district of Jerusalem in territory that was captured in the 1967 war and that the Palestinians claim as part of their future state. The move is likely to further complicate the Obama administration’s faltering efforts to restart peace talks.
The news that the building plans had moved closer to approval drew a sharp response from the White House, which has declared reviving the talks to be a major goal. Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, issued a statement saying the administration was “dismayed” and asking both parties to avoid unilateral actions that could “pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently generated a furor among Palestinians and other Arabs by praising as “unprecedented” an offer by Israel to slow down, but not stop, construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Arab countries worried that the administration was backing off its previous insistence on a complete freeze, but Mrs. Clinton denied that, saying that she was offering “positive reinforcement” for policies that headed in that direction.
The Israeli move to push forward the building plans in Jerusalem comes as the Palestinians have begun seeking support for a plan to win the United Nations Security Council’s recognition of a Palestinian state, without Israel’s agreement, in the lands Israel won in 1967. Palestinian officials said they were pursuing the idea in an attempt to break the impasse in peace talks.
(More here.)
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